Don't Burn Your Fingers With A Match or My Approach on Geting Up Early

I always admired those people who managed it to wake up early. By saying early I mean really early, like 5 o'clock. In this post I'm going to tell you how I converted myself into an early bird without huge willpower waste.

You don't have to be a superhero

Early risers are perfectly self-disciplined. No.
Early risers have a lot of willpower. No.
Early risers are natural born Early risers. No.

I'm neither pretending to be very self-disciplined, nor I know how to regenerate willpower. I had never got up before 6am in my life before I became an Early Riser. The method I'm talking about needs only a habit.

Do you know how soldiers are getting up?
Lieutenant comes into the barracks, shouts "Get up!" and fires a matchstick. The time matchstick keeps burning, soldiers have to get up, wear their trousers and hurry to the alignment. And dare one of them let the lieutenant burn his fingers with the matchstick!

They don't have a choice whether to stay in the bed or to get up. They have absolutely no time to think about getting up.

Do you remember yourself those mornings in which you've got to catch a long-trip plane/train/bus? You had no choice but to get up.

It's easy - if you let yourself choose between

get up or

stay in a warm, soft and comfortable bed,

you will choose bed.

So How To Become Early Riser?

Let you no time to think about why getting up. Just get up straight after your alarm clock went off.

Sounds easy and it is easy. To learn getting up faster than a lightning you have to repeat 10 times following routine:

Set up an alarm clock (some new, nice melody) 3 minutes in advance

Turn the lights off and lie down on the bed

As soon as the alarm goes off - get up

The whole process should take less than 5 seconds.

You can start right now, whatever daytime is. But, please, don't put the alarm clock near the bed, 2 steps away will do the job.

The target is to work out a habit. A habit to get up in the same moment the alarm clock goes off. Like a Pavlov's Dog, salivating as soon as the light bulb switches, your body will get up as soon as the melody of alarm clock starts.

But that's not all. No matter how fast you get up and switch off the alarm clock, you will probably then go with the same speed back to your bed. You'll need another one habit. A chain habit, something you would do everyday after getting up. For example, go to shower. Or go out jogging.

Catch your worm, early bird

After that you can do whatever you have never done earlier because of lack of time. You can finish some long project by working on it every day, read a book you weren't able to finish for one year, meditate, go shopping, plan your day, just do something for yourself... For instance, I learned Spanish by dedicating to it some time every morning.

It is so cool to finish all the stuff you enjoy before others are about to start doing whatever they have to.
You get so much free time.

Free time everyday. Since you've developed a habit, your body needs you to maintain it. Your body doesn't distinguish between Monday, Friday, Sunday, Independence Day or Birthday - follow the routine every day.

"But I go to bed at 2am, how will I possibly wake up at 5am?"
First morning you will suffer. But that's the price you need to pay to perform that kind of change. Just remember: don't try to solve the lack of sleep problem by sleeping longer (waking up later), solve it by going to bed earlier. Just wake up very early a couple of days and your body will adjust the time you get sleepy.

I do this routine for more than 1 year and I'm just happy to be Early Riser. The original idea of this method comes from Steve Pavlina. I decided to do this kind of self-experiment and worked perfectly. Don't try to repeat it at home, but if you do, subscribe and tell me about your experience!